Navigational Trail

How to use your Sky remote control

If you need any help with understanding your Sky remote control or would like to learn some of the handy shortcuts it offers you, our guide to using your Sky remote has all the information you'll need.

interactive: Displays the menu for Sky Interactive, which lets you manage your account, upgrade your package and find technical help through your TV.

i: Gives you more details about the programme you're watching or have highlighted in your Sky Guide.

Arrow buttons: Let you navigate the Sky TV menus. When watching live TV, the right arrow button will show you what's on later on the channel you're watching, and the up/down arrows let you browse through the other channels without switching away from the channel you're on.

select: Confirms your choices in the Sky TV menus and brings up the Now, Next and Later banner when watching live TV.

ch +/-: Changes the channel up or down.

back up: Returns you to the previous page at any point within the Sky TV menu.

help: Displays your Audio Description and Subtitles settings when watching a programme. Pressing help in the Sky TV menu will display instructions on how to navigate the menus.

Rewind: Rewinds your recorded programme or live TV. Press it repeatedly to choose the speed you rewind at, the slowest being 2x and the fastest being 30x.

Fast forward: Fast forwards your recorded programme. Press it repeatedly to choose your fast forward speed, the slowest being 2x and the fastest being 30x.

Play: Plays a recording from your Planner and returns you to normal viewing if you've paused, rewound or fast forwarded the programme you're watching.

Pause: Pauses the programme you're watching.

Record: Records a programme. If it's part of a series, you'll be asked if you want to record the entire series or just the programme you've highlighted.

Stop: Returns you to live TV when watching a recorded programme from your Planner. If you've paused or rewound a live TV programme, pressing stop will return you instantly to the live broadcast.

Red, green, yellow and blue buttons: The coloured buttons help you navigate when you're in the Sky TV menus by giving you handy shortcuts. You'll see them listed at the bottom of your screen - for example, when you're in your Sky Guide, pressing the green button will take you straight to your Planner.

As well as the basic controls outlined above, there are a few clever tricks you can do with your Sky remote:

Return to live TV: Press sky when in any of the Sky Guide menus to return to live TV.

Return to a viewed recording: After watching a recording in the Planner and switching back to live TV, you can return to the point you left the recording by pressing the play button three times.

View and restore deleted recordings: If you've deleted a programme from your Planner by mistake, there's no need to worry. Enter your Planner, then press the left arrowbutton to navigate to the Deleted tab. Press the down arrowbutton to select a recording, then press the green button to restore the recording to your Planner.

Create bookmarks in recordings: While watching a recording, press the pause button, followed by the red button to bookmark that point in the recording. While playback is paused, press the green button to display all bookmarks in the recording, which you can then select from to start viewing from that point. During playback, you can quickly jump between bookmarks by pressing and holding the rewind or fast forward buttons.

Slow motion: Did you know you can create your own slow motion replays when watching live TV? Press the rewind button until you reach the point you want to replay, then press and hold down the play button for at least two seconds to watch your programme in slow motion. To return to normal speed, simply press the play button again. This also works with any recordings in your Planner.

instant rewind/fast forward: If you want to go to the beginning or end of your programme, there's no need to wait while you rewind or fast forward through the whole programme. Simply press and hold the rewind or fast forward button for at least two seconds and you'll be taken instantly to the furthest possible point of your programme in the direction you chose.

Change the volume: Press the vol +/- buttons to change the volume on your TV.

Mute: Press the mute button to instantly turn off the volume on your TV.

Turn the TV on and off: Press tv on your Sky remote and then the standby button to turn the TV on or off. After turning on the TV, press sky to regain control of the usual Sky functions.

Switch input mode: If you’ve got other devices plugged in to your TV, such as a DVD player or games console, you can use your Sky remote to switch between your TV inputs. Press tv, then repeatedly press help to cycle through the available inputs on your TV until you find the one you’re looking for.